The hegemony of Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe in the circuit of rising youth bands in New York around the middle of the 1960s was consolidated at the end of 1969 with the launch of the LP “Cosa Nuestra”.

The cover photograph, a Henri Wolfe original, recreates a typical crime scene of the mafia and the underworld: a murder which would not leave behind any traces or fingerprints because the victim’s body would be disposed of in the Hudson River with an enormous rock tied to his feet.

As the album cover designed by Izzy Sanabria is intimidating, so is the arrangement of “Che Che Colé”, a song inspired by an African children’s game that immediately captured the attention of the Spanish-speaking world for its catchy and irresistible fusion of rhythms such as the bomba and the oriza with vestiges of the African 6/8.

“Che Che Colé”, the most popular song by the Colón-Lavoe duo, opened the doors of Panama, France, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru to them. The value of Willie and Héctor substantially improved thanks to the success of “Che Che Colé” and soon we would find them competing for ‘top billing’ in the clubs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens with the likes of Eddie Palmieri’s La Perfecta, the Lebrón Brothers, Frankie Dante & La Flamboyán and other bands of the time.

Although in the credits of the original album the names of the musicians are not listed, according to the investigation we did for the book Cada Cabeza es un Mundo: Relatos e Historias de Héctor Lavoe, at the end of 1969 the band integrated into it Eric Matos (trombone), Little Louie Romero (timbales), Milton Cardona (congas), José Mangual Jr. (bongo and cowbell), Santi González (bass) and Professor Joe Torres, who substitutes for Mark Dimond on the piano.

In “Cosa Nuestra”, the fourth recording of the duo after the launch, early in 1969, of Guisando (Doing A Job), Colón’s band now establishes its own sound and a very particular tonic in narrative salsa, due to its emphasis on stories about life in the city. Their fame by the end of 1969 rested in a rhythm section true to and shaped for polyrhythms; in the revolutionary trombones, loud, scattered and irritating, of Colón and his partner Eric Matos; in a popular repertoire and in the refined, tasteful, sentimental vocals of Héctor Lavoe, destined to become El Cantante De Los Cantantes (Singer’s Singer) a few years later.

With the end of the era of the boogaloo and the shing-aling, Colón/Lavoe demonstrated that they had the capacity to adapt to the demands of salsa that, on the fringes of traditional Cuban music, was enriched with the bomba and other Caribbean rhythms.

In “No Me Llores Más”, Willie and Héctor’s salsa echoed the sentiment of the person who does not want any crying when s/he dies if in life s/he was not honored and respected by his/her acquaintances. In the bolero with montuno “Ausencia” they sing about the pain of the man who can not accept the departure of his beloved, whose betrayal keeps him on the verge of going crazy. In “Te Conozco” they are inspired by the type of neighborhood that most people try to avoid for fear of being robbed and in “Juana Peña” they recreate the heart-rending experience of the woman who, after betraying many men, falls in love and suffers because her love is unreciprocated.

The track sequence continues with “Sonero Mayor”, an appreciation of the art of improvisation and soneo. “Sangrigorda” links urban imagines that, from the refrain “Eh, Kiliki/saca el pañuelo/prende el tabaco/mira que voy pal suelo”, suggest the scene of a santero cleansing and that of an outburst with cannabis while in “Tú No Puedes Conmigo”, Willie and Héctor once again take up the theme of envy and betrayal of a friend, so trendy at the dawn of salsa and present in songs like Hipocresía y Falsedad, No Hay Amigo, Maldades e Indestructible, among others.

Thanks to the hits “Che Che Colé”, “Juana Peña”, “Te Conozco” and the bolero “Ausencia”, with “Cosa Nuestra” Willie and Héctor achieved the most sold LP in their then nascent record career. The Latin people eagerly awaited the next album. And with “La Gran Fuga” (“The Big Break”), released the following year, they continued their course to conquering the salsa universe.

Eight years after its creation, Fania Records had accumulated such a sizable catalog of artists that it began to issue compilations from its roster of hit-making stars such as Willie Colón, Larry Harlow, Johnny Pacheco, and Ray Barretto. In fact, Crime Pays was the first anthology the label put out in 1972.

The ironically titled Crime Pays was a comment on the success of Colón’s carefully cultivated bad guy image that he sustained until the mid-1970s. The anthology compiles nine key cuts from his first four albums. His 1967 debut album El Malo (The Bad Guy) is represented by his first hit, the mambo jazz instrumental Jazzy and the title track, a bomba-guaguancó composed by Colón. Jazzy was co-penned by Colón and his African-American pianist Dwight Brewster and bassist James Taylor. The album's recording director, Fania co-founder Johnny Pacheco, bought Héctor Lavoe in to sing lead vocals. According to Brewster's biography, Lavoe initially shared the view of older musicians that Colón's was a kiddie band, but it was only after he heard the playback of Jazzy and two Colón/Brewster tunes that he changed his mind and agreed to join. Lavoe was to remain until Colón gave up his band in 1974.

Colón's follow-up, The Hustler (1968), is represented by Guajirón, composed by Brewster's replacement on piano, Mark "Markolino" Dimond, also African-American, Que Lio, a guajira co-written by Joe Cuba, Lavoe, and Colón, and the boogaloo Eso Se Baila Así penned by Colón. Dimond takes one of his elegant trademark solos on Guajirón. A brilliantly talented yet tragic figure, Dimond, who was already a drug addict at the time of The Hustler, dropped out of the New York recording scene in the mid-1970s and died in the 1980s, leaving a small yet masterful legacy of recorded work mostly for the Fania family of labels. Colón takes an effective though unsophisticated trombone solo on Que Lio.

Guisando and El Titán, both co-written by Colón and Lavoe, originate from Colón’s third Fania outing Guisando - Doing A Job ( 1969). Though un-credited, this was Dimond's last recording with Colón before he commenced an ill-fated career as a bandleader. Other un-credited personnel on the album included Charlie Cotto on timbales, Santi González on bass, Chucky López on bongo, and Barry Rogers on trombone with Justo Betancourt and Pacheco doing the first of many coro duos for Colón's albums. An African-American percussionist called Gilbert played conga.

Che Che Colé and Juana Peña are taken from Colón’s fourth Fania release Cosa Nuestra (Our Thing; 1970), his first album to go gold. Che Che Colé, adapted by Colón from a Ghanaian children's song, was his biggest hit up to that point and catapulted him into superstardom. "What really made the tune fun was Héctor's humorous Spanish (language) interpretations of the coro," comments Ray Rosado, leader of Maña, who knew Colón in the early days and continued to follow his career. Juana Peña was another Colón/Lavoe composition.

Following Cosa Nuestra, Colón made another five albums with Lavoe before handing his band over to him. By the time Colón's seventh album El Juicio (1972) was released, he had received a gold record for pre-sales alone! The cover of Farándula magazine hailed it as "El Album Mas Esperado Del Año" (The Most Awaited Album of the Year). "I attribute this success to Colón and Lavoe’s chemistry as well as their willingness to go beyond New York City in their taste for lyrics and melody," concludes Rosado.

These prolific words were written by the Puerto Rican poet and revolutionary Lola Rodriguez de Tio in 1893 and speak to the unique cultural, musical and political relationship of the two islands. In 1966, two titanic musical forces from these islands met in a New York City recording studio and produced this album.

Havana-born vocalist Celia Cruz (October 21, 1924-July 16, 2003) began her career after winning a radio talent show and began studying music seriously at the Havana Conservatory of Music soon after. Her soaring voice and ability to improvise in the son style led her to join the legendary Sonora Mantancera where she would meet her future husband, trumpeter Pedro Knight. That 15-year association with La Sonora, along with the band’s many appearances in Mexican films, produced numerous hit recordings and made Cruz a star in Latin America.

East Harlem born and bred, Ernest Anthony Puente, Jr. (April 23, 1923-May 31, 2000) has become the quintessential icon of the Nuyorican. A talented dancer, pianist and drummer in his youth, “Little Ernestito” retained his Caribbean cultural heritage while absorbing the urban hip-ness of the New York jazz scene of the 1920’s and 1930’s. His talents would lead him to work with such musical stars as vocalist Johnny Rodriguez (brother of Tito Rodriguez and the first artist Puente would record with), José Curbelo, who would take him on a short visit to Cuba in the late 1930’s and the legendary Machito and his Afro-Cubans.

After serving in the Navy in World War II, Puente would enter the prestigious Julliard School and continue his musical studies, mastering the art of arranging, composition, conducting, as well as playing the saxophone, clarinet and expanding on his early jazz drum set and timbale skills by becoming proficient on the vibes and marimba. Stints with Jose’ Curbelo and Pupi Campos band as a sideman and arranger prepared him to become a leader in his own right and by 1949 he had a local hit, Abaniquito with his trumpet-based conjunto. By 1951, Puente had created a full-fledged big band by combining the sophisticated arranging techniques and advanced harmonic concepts of the jazz tradition with the complex rhythms of Afro-Cuban music.

It is this mastery of Afro-Cuban music that led Cruz and Puente to meet in Cuba in 1955 for a celebration honoring Cuba’s greatest musical artists. Upon the recommendation of Mario Bauzá, musical director of the Afro-Cubans, Puente was the only non-Cuban invited. In the words of Bauzá, “No one has done more for Cuban music than Tito.”

The meeting of Cruz and Puente opens with vocalist Chivirico Davila’s composition, La Guarachera, a name that would be bestowed on Cruz long before the title “Queen of Latin Music.” The up-tempo mambo/guaracha is given complete Puente treatment with a full brass and saxophone opening, some quirky clave counterpoint leading to the montuno (solo vamp) where Cruz shows that she is vocalist to be reckoned with. It ends with a vocal and timbale dialog that explodes with one of Puente’s most memorable solos.

This album also highlights Cruz’s versatility as a vocalist, singing rock en Español in Mi Desperación, bomba in La Plena Bomba Me Llama and then melancholy bolero guajira-son in Desencanto. Tinicue is a reminder to listeners that Cruz began her recording career singing Afro-Cuban ritual music from the Santeria tradition and this ode to the guardian of the crossroads, Elegua, is a beautiful reminder of that. No Hay Amgios is an up-tempo guaguancó given the Puente big band mambo treatment. Me Acuerdo de Ti which is Cruz’s vocal tribute to her beloved Cuba, is the highlight on this master work. Gustavo Secien’s lyrics are interpreted with raw emotion and remind us that she was an incredible bolero interpreter. “You should have seen Cruz when she sang that tune. The tears that were streaming down her face while she was singing it choked everyone up. It was done in one take,” recalls Joe Conzo (Tito Puente’s publicist).

In addition to the Puerto Rican and Cuban musical styles featured here, so are the musical traditions of Colombia, Venezuela, Spain, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The album’s musical diversity is a clear testimony to the versatility of Puente and his ability to master various Latin American styles.

The year 1966 signaled the end of an era with the closing of the famed Palladium Ballroom and Birdland - two places where jazz and Afro-Cuban music had flourished. But it was also the year that Puente and Cruz would begin a musical partnership that would endure.

Recorded at National Recording Studios, New York City 1966 Engineered by Fred Weinberg Produced by Al Santiago and Pancho Cristal Cover design by Steven Craig Productions Originally released in 1966 by Tico records